Chapter 62
An impenetrable darkness—so deep I couldn’t see an inch ahead.
I opened my eyes within it.
“Where… am I?”
A familiar scent brushed my nose, and soon the pitch-black void gave way to an all-too-familiar landscape.
Blackened, lifeless earth.
Poisonous rivers belching their stench into the air.
It was a sight utterly unlike the world I’d seen for the past several months.
And with it came the memories I’d tried so hard not to recall—
The days I’d spent starving to death, alone on a barren land where not even weeds grew.
Of course, this wasn’t reality.
Just an illusion—something replaying the worst memory buried in my mind.
“…Ha.”
The air was deathly still, not a whisper of wind.
Then, from the rotten black soil, something began to rise.
Crunch!
With a harsh sound, the earth swelled and took shape—
until it became a human-like figure.
“Hello?”
A woman’s voice echoed—a woman with long, curly red hair.
Varka.
One of the Three Nightmares who would one day lead the Eternal Knights.
She looked at me with mischievous, glittering eyes.
Beautiful, if you only looked at her face—beautiful enough to turn any man’s head.
But remembering the kind of person she was, all I felt was disgust.
A lunatic who tortured and killed people purely for amusement.
Don’t be fooled. She’s insane.
Knowing her, she’d probably laugh while stomping on my unconscious head.
Still, she wouldn’t go to all this trouble just to say hello.
There was only one reason to drag me through my worst memories—
to trigger trauma, to break me down.
Yeah… they’ve used that method before to extract information.
But I had no intention of cooperating.
The only reason they’d kept me alive—the only bargaining chip I had—
was my knowledge of the novel’s future, from the world that had already perished.
The moment I revealed it, they’d have no reason to keep me alive.
Crod, I managed to deceive somehow—but this time was different.
This lunatic in front of me could probably tear through my mind without effort.
Tear through my mind… huh?
Not impossible.
If she could enter someone’s dream, then the skill she was using was “Dream Manipulation.”
A succubus’s unique skill—
but when enslaved, their master could use their abilities too.
A skill that dredged up a target’s worst nightmare, shattered their mind,
and extracted whatever information was buried deep within.
Not something to take lightly.
In the novel, this skill alone drove one of the Allied Kingdoms’ knights completely insane.
Humans crumble easily when forced to relive endless nightmares.
“Quite the charming hobby you’ve got.”
“Charming? That’s rude. I even stopped Solus from killing you, you know.”
“…I’ll have to thank you for that, then.”
“Oh? You talk like you actually know who Solus is?”
“Do I look like I don’t?”
“…Hooh?”
Varka narrowed her eyes and smiled in that unsettling way of hers.
I wanted nothing more than to punch that face—
but this wasn’t her real body.
Her true self was probably standing nearby with a blade to my neck,
ready to slit my throat at the first sign of resistance.
I had to walk a fine line—push her without provoking her too far.
“…What do you want?”
“What do you think?”
“The information I know?”
“Heehee! You’re not as dumb as you look!”
Her voice was gleeful, childlike—
except her innocence was twisted beyond repair.
“You’d better just talk. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck drowning in your worst memory forever!”
“Not forever. The Allied Knights will be here any minute.”
“Mm? Ah… that’s true.”
She smiled faintly.
“Well, putting that aside…”
I looked around.
The world around us was lifeless, colorless, dead.
The sight alone made me want to gag—
but I could handle it.
Honestly, I hadn’t expected this to be the nightmare she chose.
Not the moments my comrades died,
not even the time I faced the Demon Lord Ashtar.
Just the time I starved to death, powerless to resist.
That was my worst nightmare.
Yeah, those days were miserable…
But what made this nightmare terrifying wasn’t the scene—it was the time.
Months upon months of slow, hopeless dying.
The wasteland itself wasn’t the horror—it was how long it lasted.
Maybe that’s why, even now, I felt strangely calm.
Almost bored, even.
“This is supposed to be my worst memory?”
“…Huh?”
Varka frowned and looked around.
“…What the—? This is it? This is your nightmare?”
She rubbed her eyes and scanned the barren field again.
Nothing changed.
Too empty, too still—far too dull to be called a nightmare.
“Wha…? That can’t be right. It’s supposed to be your worst memory…”
Sure, it looked unimpressive.
But if she only knew what it was like to starve alone for over a year…
she’d understand it was worse than any torture.
Fortunately, she didn’t realize that.
Still confused, Varka waved her hand through the air.
Space itself split open—and through it, I saw two familiar faces.
Priana and Islin.
Both were trapped in their own nightmares, writhing in agony.
“I… I don’t regret it… This was my choice…”
“Get away from me… you damned bastard…”
Varka waved her hand again, and they vanished.
“Strange… theirs are working just fine…”
So I’d accidentally glimpsed their nightmares too.
Please tell me that ‘bastard’ wasn’t me.
Uncomfortable thought. I pushed it aside.
Varka still looked confused.
She had her reasons for sticking to dream manipulation.
A succubus had one other skill—but it came with massive risk.
If she used it recklessly, the backlash could destroy her.
So she hesitated.
Then I’ll just have to make her use it.
I snorted loudly enough for her to hear.
“Pathetic.”
“…What did you say?”
Varka turned toward me, frowning.
“I said you’re pathetic. No—calling you pathetic would be too kind.
No idiot would show this kind of trash and expect me to talk.”
“Ha! You’re trying to provoke me—”
“Provoke? I’m just describing how stupid you are.
What’s wrong, did I hit a nerve?”
“…”
“Though I guess you’re not completely brainless, since you can still understand words.”
“You—shut up. The worst nightmare is supposed to show up…”
“Really? I wouldn’t know. Honestly, I’m about to yawn.”
“…”
“Pathe—”
“You bastard!”
Clank!
Thick iron chains materialized out of nowhere, wrapping around my body.
Urgh!
“Keep running your mouth and I’ll tear your throat out!”
The chains tightened, crushingly hard.
I felt my ribs creak under the pressure.
“No… something’s wrong. This isn’t right…”
Even while bound, I didn’t stop. I spat out one insult after another.
“Figures. Only a fool like you would cling to a fallen empire’s scraps.”
“…”
Her laughter vanished.
Her face went rigid.
Meanwhile, I smiled.
Almost there.
I pressed on.
“You really think you can get away with this crap?
Don’t tell me you’re too dumb to know what’s coming.”
“…”
“What’s in that head of yours—brains or worms?”
“…Shut up!”
Even knowing it was bait, she fell for it.
Varka stormed toward me, rage twisting her face.
Crunch!
Her slender fingers clamped down on my cheeks.
“What would a noble bastard like you know!?”
“Oh, I know plenty.
I know you and your kind will all die soon!
The Allied Knights are coming—and when they do,
you’ll learn just how worthless that ‘Servant Rank’ of yours really is!”
“Grrr…!”
“You thought this would break me? Kill me if you want, idiot!”
“You—you’ll regret that!”
Her eyes turned pitch-black.
A violent wind roared around her.
Whoooosh!
The darkness in her eyes locked with mine—
and pain lanced through my skull.
Got you.
I smiled.
“Why are you smil—”
She noticed too late.
The skill had already triggered.
Dream Fusion.
A succubus’s second ability—
a kind of defense mechanism.
They cling to the back of a target’s head like an octopus, feeding off dreams.
If you try to tear them off by force,
the dreams they’ve eaten mix with the victim’s own memories.
If the target’s mind is strong, they survive.
If not—they lose all sense of self,
unable to tell reality from others’ dreams,
descending into madness.
That’s why a succubus must only be removed gently,
waiting for the victim to awaken.
In short, it’s like tearing someone’s mind apart.
But this wasn’t a succubus using it.
It was Varka.
Flash!
Her memories poured into me.
A pitiful life.
As a child, she’d lost her parents in the Great War—
hunted by bandits, thrown into a monster den.
Through countless brushes with death,
she’d learned how to control the Servant Rank.
She survived—but people shunned her,
calling her cursed for wielding a power tied to monsters.
Back then, the world hadn’t yet accepted the trade of monsters as slaves.
Abandoned by all, she was finally “saved” by a group—
followers of Emperor Kazan, dreaming of his restoration.
Just like in the novel.
Her sorrow, her loneliness—it was real, even heartbreaking.
But that was where my sympathy ended.
The world was full of tragic lives.
Her twenty-some years of pain
were nothing compared to what I’d endured.
“Ugh…?”
Varka winced as my memories began bleeding into her.
She saw it all—
How I’d lost comrades again and again but kept fighting,
driven by one goal: to save the world.
How I finally killed the Demon Lord,
only to be left utterly alone.
Months of searching for survivors,
finding nothing but despair and loneliness.
How I slowly, painfully starved to death—
unable to live, unable to die.
Crack.
That nightmare surfaced again.
Her life’s pain couldn’t even compare.
“W-what… what is this…?”
Her grip weakened.
The chains around me loosened.
Snap!
I tore my arm free and grabbed her hand instead.
“Trying to run away?”
“Ugh—s-stop!”
Tears welled up in her black eyes.
But I didn’t stop.
“Look at it!
This is the life I lived!
This is the memory you wanted so badly!”
My memories rushed past us like a storm—
until—
BOOM!
A deafening burst rang in my ears.
The wasteland around us scattered into dust,
and in an instant, the ruined world vanished—
replaced by the glittering interior of the Golden Bank.
I opened my eyes in its dark central hall.
“Ugh…”
A wet sound came from behind me.
Something sticky brushed my neck.
I reached back—
the corpse of the succubus lay there, blood pooling beneath it.
“Back already?”
I looked around.
Only Priana and Islin were there, both collapsed on the floor.
Solus must’ve killed the succubus and forcibly pulled us out.
Varka… probably carried off by Solus as they fled.
“…Hah.”
At least I was alive.
I really thought I’d die there—but Varka’s gullibility had saved me.
“Ugh…”
The two women beside me groaned—
still trapped halfway in their nightmares, mumbling incoherently.
Slap, slap.
“Hey. Time to wake up, don’t you think?”
“Ugh…”
“Don’t touch me… you filthy…”
“…Right.”
So much for gratitude. I’d let them sleep it off.
They’d wake when they were ready.
“After them!”
I heard soldiers shouting outside, arriving a moment too late.
I exhaled deeply.
At least I survived.
The Golden Bank had taken heavy losses—
but the vault itself was intact.
“…Guess that counts as a win.”
